MY STORY.

Who I am, How I got here.

His ability to get someone to remove any mental block they may have as to using video as a form of engagement and marketing tool was just amazing... Juma, Thank you for helping me find the courage to step out my comfort zone and do this...

Sarekha Deoraj - Financial Advisor

3 Chapters about me

Chapter 1: Who I am in 131.67 seconds.

First off, I’m a husband and father. Professionally I’m the Co-Founder and Executive Creative Director of Relate Studios, a Strategic Marketing and Production Company. I’m also the founder of Useful Content where I’m a Video Content Strategist, Trainer and host of the Useful Content Podcast .

I’ve been in creativity and content for over 25 years. I developed film by hand, operated an offset printing press, did graphic design, worked as a UI/Web Designer, started a photography company and now I create video content, content strategies and train professionals to be creators. I’m basically the middle child of modern marketing. Old enough to have operated a letterpress machine and put ads in newspaper classifieds but young enough to have grown my TikTok channel from 0 to 5000 followers in under five weeks. I’ve taken over 1.2 million photographs professionally (This is not an exaggeration) and Creative Directed more than 412 projects. In my former life as a wedding photographer, I won 5 international awards and I’ve been to 16 different countries on assignment.

Over the past 4 years I’ve created over 554 videos, hosted 68 episodes of my live show and released 62 episodes of my podcast Useful Content which became the #1 Marketing Podcast in my country in 2024. I’ve helped thousands of professionals become Confident, Consistent, Skillful Content Creators. I create courses, host workshops and share free content on how overcome fear, build your video content strategy, grow your skill and practically create useful video content, that will engage your audience and get you more revenue over time.

I’m a teacher at heart and I believe everyone has something valuable to teach. I was formally trained as a printing technician, every other skill I’ve gained is through learning, practice and experience. I was born and raised in Trinidad & Tobago and I love the Caribbean. We are more than just vibes, creativity and culture. We are innovation, skill and intelligence. We are not just consumers we are creators.

I’m 6’7″, I believe in Christ and serve Him, I love to hike with friends, I’m into plants and I’d rather stay home. Yes I read this aloud to measure the time it took – 131.67 seconds.

Chapter 2: I wouldn't be in business if it wasn't for my wife.

July 2005, it’s the evening of our wedding reception. My friend who I asked to take pictures at the reception walks up to me and says my 3.2 megapixel Canon S1 IS camera I bought just 5 months earlier has gone completely dead. I was devastated.

But then 5 months later, a visit from my good friend and former classmate Jason Reid changed everything. Jason walked through my gate and around his neck hung this beautiful, black, sleek instrument. It was his brand new camera; A Nikon D70. I’d never seen a camera like this up close before. It was awe inspiring. It was at that point I knew I had to get one…but there was a problem.

After paying for the wedding mostly by ourselves, we were all but broke save for around TTD $5600 (USD $935) in wedding gift money. I knew that taking the last of our money and buying a camera, when I had no clients and no plan seemed like a crazy idea, but I also felt deep in my heart that it was the right decision. I sat with my wife Brenda and we discussed it and I explained to her what I felt and even though we had only been married six months she trusted me like we had been married for 60 years.

So we took our last few thousand dollars and bought a Nikon D50 with a 18-55mm kit lens. It was that same camera that I used to shoot my very first wedding just two months later in February of 2006. For the next year, I took pictures of everything in sight, building the platform for what would be a new business just a few years later.

If it wasn’t for her ability to trust me and agree, even though she couldn’t see the full picture, Juma Bannister, the Professional Photographer, Creative Director, Video Content Trainer and Strategist may not have existed today.

Thank you my love.

Chapter 3: The pandemic (and a bad client) made me a creator.

It’s mid 2020 and business is down by 75% due to the pandemic. We cut our salaries in half, close the office and everyone starts working remotely. It’s a hard time but on the positive side, I love to be home. I’m productive, I’m focused and I can dedicate time to learning new things.

In November of that year we were hired by a client that ended up being a bit of a nightmare. After weeks of back and forth the relationship fizzled out, but someone told me the person tagged me in a post on Linkedin. I thought: Why would they tag me on Linkedin of all places? Isn’t that the resume site? When I checked, surprisingly they gave a positive review of our services but what shocked me, is that Linkedin wasn’t the site I remembered. It was a business to business connection platform. I said to myself, this client could’ve said anything about me, impacted our reputation negatively and I would’ve never known. Armed with this discovery, nowhere to go and unusually large amount of time on my hands, I decided to take control of how I wanted to be known on Linkedin.

On December 12th 2020 I posted my own content for the first time. Then soon after I committed to posting every weekday for the next year. Up to that point I was making video content for business clients for a decade, but I hadn’t created much content for myself. By the end of 2021 I had posted more than 350 pieces of content. Over the next four years I would do several video series, start a live show and create a podcast all delivered on the Linkedin platform. In that time my content has amassed over a million impressions, hundreds of thousands of views and thousands of watch hours which puts me in the top 1% of creators on the platform.

Next up, YouTube.